Dear Crafty,
V's mother is not able to do much/anything for and from herself. Probably, her own background trained her in emotional neglect and abuse. So, she is well-trained and out in the world as a qualified and experienced practitioner. It is what she understands as, and how she experiences, her emotional life.
So, any change or work will necessarily have to be done for her by others. In time, this may have an effect. But, her current default operating programme is negative; so this isn't short-term and will be hard.
Conventionally, I recommend sending goodwill at the end of the morning sitting; and this is also appropriate in this case. To have any chance of achieving a positive effect, it's two-to-three years and with no expectations of positive change. But, what are the other alternatives to sending goodwill in both tangible and intangible forms?
Love cannot bear than any soul be denied its place in Paradise.
Love is a grace which, to enter our sorry world, requires vehicles to act through and upon. One of the things we can do, to help Love enter, is the practice of strengthening the threshold through which Love enters, and inviting our Friend to come visit.
Where someone really pisses us off, we have available the Assumption of Virtue:
it is not necessary to feel loving;
it is not necessary to be loving;
it is necessary to act as if we are Loving.
The Christmas tree is a great idea.
December 20th. 2006
